Tag : elliott smith

after last week’s breakthrough to the brighter side, i was excited to keep my eye on the positive and deliver some more upbeat music. but when i heard that vic chestnutt had committed suicide, i just couldn’t get it off my mind, and figured i should pay tribute. read more >

this is the start of a three song death scene. clarity is coming for mr. sullivan, and so is the end of this song cycle. the first step is acceptance. at that point he will be opened up to his core. and then the curtains will fall.

finally introduced by name at the end of the last song, mr. sullivan sinks toward his end, his son approaches, asking him to stay. this song is in the voice of the son, who has had more time to adjust to these strange surroundings. read more >

the descending/ascending piano line came first. it suggested to me a kind of hopeful melancholy. the piano part and melody came very quickly, the result of fiddling with different accompaniment styles, in this case the piano playing the guitar, something i want to do more of.

the first lyric hook was “why does it alway have to be…” but i had no idea what that meant, only that someone was saying it to the person singing the song. then i got “a broken heart a valentine” and from there it was just wrestling with meaning, tying the two parts together, and uncovering the rest of the story.

the squeal of kids was an accident: cormac and maude running through the house with friends when i was recording a vocal. at first i thought a decent take was ruined, upon hearing it in context, it had the sense of faraway delight, a happy sound, but lonely in its distance. a memory perhaps, or a dream.

hat tip to elliott smith who haunts this one, and to the white album beatles, as is often the case these days.